Ephesians 2:1-3
“And you he made alive, when you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
Paul gives three sources for our condition of sin and death:
1) “The course of this world.” This is the fallen world around us. It is not the physical world, but rather the system of ideas, beliefs, and activities that is opposed to God and his kingdom.
2) “The prince of the power of the air.” This is the devil. The adversary who “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5.8).
3) “The passions of our flesh.” This is the sin nature. The fallen/broken part of us that produces undisciplined, off-path impulses.
That is a formidable triad of forces that conspire to destroy our lives and damage our effectiveness for God and his kingdom! But as we shall see in tomorrow’s post, God has defeated this triad of evil. It is our responsibility to trust in God’s grace so that we might live a life of victory over these forces.
Verse 2 is significant. It says “the spirit that is now at work in the son of disobedience.” What gets my attention is the phrase “at work.” The adversary works hard at distorting, disrupting, and deceiving us. He works very hard. In fact, the same word for “work” that is used here with regard to the devil is also used in chapter 1 verses 19-20 with regard to the work of God.
The devil is at work seeking our death; God is at work seeking our life. The key question is this: Whose work do we allow to guide and direct our life? The work of God or the work of the enemy? What are we doing to live the life that God has given us in Christ? What are we doing to appropriate God’s power and apply his principles to defeat the work of the “spirit of disobedience?”
As Paul will clarify in this chapter, we are not saved by our own works. Salvation is by grace through faith. Once having received God’s gift of salvation, it is our responsibility to work diligently and by faith to live for Christ. Our effort must be faith-driven and grace-empowered, but make no mistake, it is effort. It takes work.
We will explore “the work of being a Christian” in greater detail as we dig further into the book of Ephesians, but let’s be very clear: God calls us to do the work of being a Christian in our families, he calls us to do the work of being a Christian in our jobs, and he calls us to do the work of being a Christian in the churches where we worship and in the communities where we live.
If we don’t do the work of faith, we will not bear the fruit that God desires in and through our life.
Paul says it beautifully in Philippians 2:12-13. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
